How to Teach Women to be Empowering

I recently wrote about 5 Ways to be an Empowering Woman to help motivate women to be the change we want to see in this world. One of the sections was called Teach Them.

Teaching women of all ages to be empowered is important. I know because I have been taught to be empowered. It is so easy as a woman in society to feel knocked down, unloved and not good enough.

Empowering is defined as:

Make (someone) stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life and claiming their rights.

But to do this we have to do many things, including teach them.

How I was Taught

I can relate. In parts of my life, I had the confidence to stand up for myself and to feel empowered in what I was doing. However, last year in my job I was placed in many positions in which I continued to feel knocked down. I worked for two extremely unhappy people that continued to use their power to bring others down. I was working more than 60 hours a week to fit the needs of my clients, especially the needs of these two individuals; I would make sure I did as they needed so that I was doing the job I was supposed to, or so I thought.

After more than six months of unreasonable requests and timelines, I didn’t think I was good enough for the job anymore. I felt defeated. I felt all my confidence in myself come crashing down. I wasn’t myself anymore. I didn’t want to voice my opinion. I was exhausted.

Fortunately for me, I had one woman who I also supported with communication needs for my company. We had an open discussion one day and I shared how I was feeling.

She related.

She understood.

She shared her stories.

And most importantly she taught me how to be empowering for myself.

She didn’t do it for me but instead she taught me that I could do it all on my own. After some coaching, I took back the reins of my job and felt empowered to my job; to stand up against the unreasonable requests; to voice my opinion; and to show what I am capable of.

It has been a year since that talk. I still remember it because it gives me the motivation to continue to stay empowered and stand up for myself. It also taught me that I needed that nudge, we all need it sometimes and that through her teaching me to be empowered, I grew as a person. I can now go teach another woman the same thing.

Be the Teacher.

I don’t think many of us realize the impact we can have on others. I bet this woman was doing this just to help me, unknowingly changing my outlook on myself. It takes one person to help another person and the chain continues. Just like if you want to bring someone down, the chain continues that way too. Think about it. How do you want to impact someone’s life?